Ju Hua was the commander-in-chief, so no one could complain about him weaving through the various battlefields.
As it turned out, things were almost exactly as Ju Hua had expected. On every battlefield where a God-Fiend had died, he absorbed some of the specks of light.
"These specks have an extraordinary origin. They can greatly improve my comprehension, so I'll call them Soul Essence!" Ju Hua silently told himself.
Soon, Ju Hua stopped weaving through the battlefield. He once again used Law of Heaven and Earth, relying on his physical strength to attack one God-Fiend after another.
The strength of the Zhuanshui Clan's ten thousand troops far surpassed that of the fifty Primordial Spirit Fiends. From the very beginning, the battle had been a crushing defeat for the Fiends. Before long, nearly all fifty had been slaughtered. Only seven or eight Fiends with strong survival skills and special escape techniques managed to flee in a panic.
Some wanted to pursue them, but Ju Hua stopped them with a shout.
"Daoist Ju Hua, are you worried there's an ambush ahead? We can be careful! Still, it's such a shame to let those five or six Primordial Spirit Fiends get away so easily!" one Loose Immortal said to Ju Hua.
Ju Hua paid no heed to the man's words. He took out the Message Token that represented his position as commander-in-chief and poured a large amount of elemental force into it.
Boom!
The Message Token burst into beams of light, and Ju Hua's voice rang in the ears of every soldier.
"All troops, heed my command. Board the warship!"
"..."
Ju Hua's command, reinforced by the Message Token, made everyone fall silent of their own accord. They quickly flew aboard the Shuixuan Warship, which hovered in midair.
Ju Hua boarded last. Then he ordered several Loose Immortals skilled in reconnaissance to lock onto the Fiends who had just escaped, and instructed several others to steer the Shuixuan Warship in pursuit.
Ju Hua naturally wasn't going to let those few Primordial Spirit Fiends get away. The Loose Immortal had been right: it would be a real shame to let them go just like that.
Besides, their purpose in entering the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh was to hunt down Fiends. Letting a few Primordial Spirit Fiends go without reason would indeed be improper.
However, Ju Hua wasn't about to pursue them recklessly. No one knew whether there was a Fiend trap waiting up ahead.
That was why he had everyone board the Shuixuan Warship before setting off in pursuit.
The Shuixuan Warship was an Immortal-tier magic treasure. Even if they did fall into an ambush, it could hold out for a while—and that little bit of time could change many things.
In particular, Ancestor Tianyang had actually been near the army the whole time. If danger arose, he wouldn't stand by and do nothing.
What's more, the army's many Loose Immortals skilled in reconnaissance weren't just standing around, and Ju Hua himself wasn't reckless. It would be difficult to make them charge straight into an ambush.
The Shuixuan Warship pressed forward in great force. Before long, Ju Hua and the Loose Immortals standing at the bow spotted several blurry figures in the distance.
"Who here is skilled with a bow? Shoot them down!" Ju Hua ordered.
"Leave it to me!"
A Loose Immortal dressed in a green robe stepped forward. He reached out, and a long, azure-blue bow appeared in his hand. He reached out again, and a matching arrow appeared in his other hand.
The azure-blue bow and arrow were likely top-grade Heaven-tier magic treasures. Bows and arrows like these could be drawn with brute strength or controlled with elemental force. This Loose Immortal seemed to be using the latter method.
Under the green-robed Loose Immortal's control, the bow was drawn taut in an instant. Vast quantities of Heaven and Earth's elemental energy gathered around the arrow.
Boom!
The arrow sprang from the bowstring. In an instant, it pierced through layer upon layer of thick fog and struck the body of the rearmost Fiend.
The arrow's terrifying power tore a gaping hole in the Fiend's body. The sudden injury made him falter, and his speed dropped.
By then, the Shuixuan Warship had caught up.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless attacks surged out from the Shuixuan Warship. In nearly an instant, the Primordial Spirit Fiend was reduced to ashes! Just as Ju Hua had expected, he absorbed another wisp of Soul Essence.
"Nicely done. Keep it up!" Ju Hua praised the green-robed Loose Immortal without changing his expression, then gave him another order.
"Yes!"
The Loose Immortal naturally didn't refuse. He retrieved the arrow he had just recalled, then nocked it and drew the bow again.
Boom!
Another terrifying arrow shot forth. Another Fiend's speed plummeted, and the Shuixuan Warship caught up and blasted him to smithereens!
After taking two consecutive arrows from the green-robed Loose Immortal, the Fiends up ahead seemed to have been frightened. They used some unknown method to suddenly increase their speed by a large margin, and the Shuixuan Warship, which had nearly caught up, was left far behind!
Because of the thick fog, the Fiends who had previously appeared as blurry figures to the Loose Immortals were now no more than a few black dots.
"Keep going!" Ju Hua ordered.
"...Yes!" The green-robed Loose Immortal nodded, hesitating slightly.
Another arrow, its power surging, was soon shot. But this time, none of the few remaining Fiends ahead slowed down in the slightest.
The many Loose Immortals poised to attack felt as though they had thrown a punch into cotton.
Under the watchful eyes of the Loose Immortals, the green-robed Loose Immortal said sheepishly, "Fellow Daoists, out in the open, I could easily hit them from this distance—and even from ten times farther away. But in the Autumn Mountain Great Marsh..."
"Enough. This isn't your fault," Ju Hua cut him off. "Let me borrow your bow."
"Daoist Ju Hua, are you skilled in archery too?" the Loose Immortal asked. But he didn't hesitate. He handed Ju Hua the bow, then took out an arrow and gave it to him as well.
"I know a thing or two about archery," Ju Hua said as he swiftly used his magic power to refine the bow and arrow in his hands.
"Sea Dragon Bow. Nice name!" Ju Hua praised it. Then he abruptly drew the bow and nocked the arrow, and vast quantities of Heaven and Earth's elemental energy quickly gathered.
Boom!
The arrow pierced through space. A black dot in the distance trembled, then began to rapidly grow larger until the blurry figure of a Fiend appeared in the Loose Immortals' sight.
"Excellent! Daoist Ju Hua truly is a master archer!" the green-robed Loose Immortal exclaimed, clapping his hands.
"Do you have any more arrows?" Ju Hua asked.
"Of course!" The green-robed Loose Immortal handed him another arrow.
Boom!
Another thunderous report rang out. The Fiend's speed dropped sharply once more, and by then, the Shuixuan Warship had finally caught up.
Countless Loose Immortals unleashed merciless attacks in an instant. The Fiend could only turn to ashes with an unwilling roar.